The men’s tennis team opened its outdoor season with a bang, thrashing conference foe Maryland 7-0 Sunday.
Although the Blue Devils (8-2, 2-0) won easily, everyone had to battle with swirling winds. Because this was the first match Duke played in the elements, it was tough to adjust to the imperfect conditions, head coach Jay Lapidus said.
“It’s a different feel to play outside, so I think it’s going to help us going into next week and the following weeks,” he said.
Lapidus utilized several non-starters and put three freshmen into the singles lineup against Maryland (4-4, 0-3). The shining member of the group, however, was the old man of the pack, Peter Shults. The senior dominated his opponent at the No. 4 position with a 6-0, 6-0 victory to improve his record to 6-1 on the year.
“Peter Shults had a good day today, he played very well,” Lapidus said. “At the college level, that means you played a really good match. I think he was the guy that really stood out.”
In contrast to Shults’ easy victory, freshman Charles Brezac narrowly avoided a third set by overcoming a second-set deficit in a 6-2, 7-5 victory at second singles. Brezac was down 4-1 before holding serve twice and using a break to even the match at 4-4. Then up 6-5, the freshman broke his opponent to end the match, improving his record to 6-2.
“Charles did a good job,” Lapidus said. “Their player started playing well in the second set, he was serving real big, and the wind was starting to swirl a little bit, which makes for some difficult conditions. But Charles did a good job of hanging in there in the second set.”
Playing in his first singles match this season, freshman Alex Stone won 6-3, 6-4 at the No. 6 spot. Stone had a bit of trouble controlling the ball in the gusting wind, but overcame this equalizing factor and put away his opponent.
“There were times when the wind was blowing a little harder, and on some of my flat shots I was going for the line and I was missing wide,” Stone said. “Overall I was grinding pretty well, I was getting him off the court, and hit a winner the other way.
“My serve was not as good as it usually is because the wind would take it in whichever direction on the toss.”
Duke’s Ludovic Walter, the second-ranked player in the nation, used a devastating combination of power and placement on his serves to win 6-2, 6-2 at the No. 1 position, making him 7-1 on the season.
Peter Rodrigues also won 6-2, 6-2 at the No. 3 position, and freshman Ned Samuelson put up a win at No. 5 by the count of 6-1, 6-0. Rodrigues is now 6-1, and Samuelson remains one of two undefeated Blue Devils at 4-0.
“I always have confidence in this team, all 12 of us can win on any given day,” Stone said. “We didn’t give away any games, and we fought real hard.”
Duke had little difficulty taking the doubles point, as all three pairs won convincingly. Walter teamed with No. 61 Jonathan Stokke at first doubles to win 8-2, Brezac and Samuelson won by the same count at second doubles and Shults paired with Stone to win the No. 3 position, 8-4.
Duke plays its next three matches over spring break, when the squad travels to the Lone Star state to take on Texas, Texas A&M and Texas Christian.
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